Julian Assange lands book deal

JULIAN Assange, the Australian founder of WikiLeaks who has been holed up in an embassy in London for nearly two years, has landed a book deal.

The publishers, OR Books, plan to release a book - called When Google Met WikiLeaks - in September. It is based on a conversation between Assange and Google chairman Eric Schmidt which took place in June 2011.

It contains an edited transcript of that conversation and outlines the way WikiLeaks works.

A spokesman said it contains "extensive, new material, written by Assange specifically for this book, providing the best available summary of his vision for the future of the internet".

Assange entered the Ecuadorian embassy in June 2012 while he faced extradition to Sweden to face rape allegations and he was given asylum there later that year.